Our 2009-2010 School Year

School will be starting here next Monday, August 17. We never really stop school. Well, we do take breaks, sometimes quite lengthy breaks. I like having time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to bake and be crafty! But we try to continue reading and math year round and play a lot of catch-up after a new baby arrives. I love having this flexibility as a homeschooler.

This year is especially exciting because we have decided to participate in a homeschool co-op. We will meet on Mondays and the parents each teach and assist one class. The rest of the week our work will be completed at home. It's going to take a lot of organization and effort on our part to be successful. But, the payoff of completing so many classes for all of my children will be huge. I really need the help this year!

Here is a run down of the classes that we will take either in co-op school or at home. Anything marked with an * will be taught at home. I will be glad to answer any questions in the comments.

Jacob (16yo)
Saxon Algebra 1 *
Apologia Physical Science
Bob Jones American Government
Bob Jones Economics
Virginia History
Institute for Excellence in Writing
Abeka Geography

Samuel (14yo)
Saxon math *
Apologia Physical Science
Abeka Geography
Abeka Health
PE
Institute for Excellence in Writing
Spelling and Grammar review *

Abigail (12yo)
Saxon math *
Apologia General Science
World History
Geography Through Art
Logic
Institute for Excellence in Writing

Anna (10yo)
Saxon math*
Shurley English
Apologia Astronomy
Virginia History
PE
spelling review*
required reading*

Wendy (5yo)
Children's literature Five in a Row (I'm teaching this class at co-op)
Math*
PE
Science
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons*
Handwriting*

Lily (soon to be 4 yo)
number and letter recognition *
as much paint and markers as I can stand :) She loves to paint and create art! *

Morning Routine

I want to join the challenge by Crystal to follow a morning routine. I do these things every day, but not necessarily in the proper order to be most productive. `I'm easily distracted and get off "course" easily. To keep on track, this list of five things to do first thing will be on the side of my fridge by the coffee pot.

1. Get ready for the day, personal hygiene
2. Start coffee, drink water, take vitamins
3. While coffee brews, start laundry that is scheduled for that day, change Rose, check cloth diaper supply for the day
4. Bible reading, have coffee
5. Read email, nurse Rose, make to do list for the day

Note of encouragement.... The older kids all have a specific morning routine also. While I am following my morning routine I have to meet the needs of Wendy, Lily, and Rose and guide the older kids through their responsibilities (mainly keep them from talking too much) so school can begin on time. With that said, I remind myself that my family is my ministry and focus. This post by Laura says it so well! EVERYTHING I do is interrupted and there is no absolute schedule to this routine. There are no "scheduled breaks" for spills, potty breaks, dirty diapers, bickering and discipline, a sock in the central vac, etc. :0) It just is not possible to follow a set timed schedule with littles. Notice that I did not set an exact time for this to begin or end or a set time for each chore. I just need something to come back to in order to refocus. Don't be a slave to your list, use it as a guide! We do have goals of finishing tasks by a certain time while remaining flexible. The Lord will bless our effort.

October News

October has been a busy eventful month in our house. I am terribly behind on posting, so I thought I would catch up on things in one post.

October has been a good month of schooling for us. Everyone is doing very well and our schedule seems to be working well. In a nutshell, we are up by 8, chores and breakfast are done by 9, most are done with lessons by lunch time. Jacob has to work for a while after lunch usually. But he has some big books to work through. Tommy has taken on the responsibility of teaching grammar to the kids in the evenings. He is doing a great job too! Jacob has started Algebra this year and is doing very well. Samuel is learning to be more disciplined with his time and is completing his work most days by lunch time! Abigail does more than all of us pretty much everyday. She and Anna have started preschool curriculum with Wendy and Lily and Wendy is loving every minute of it. Wendy is a sponge right now! Abby is also practicing for a December recital for piano. She will be playing "We Three Kings". Anna has become quite the reader. We are very proud of her progress and is learning cursive and has nice hand writing.

In sports news, we had a month filled with soccer games and a baseball tournament. Samuel's travel baseball team had an excellent showing in the AAU state tournament. They took second in the tournament which made them 9th in the state! We really enjoyed watching Jacob and Samuel play soccer for the first time since they were age 4 and 6! They played their hearts out, and enjoyed it even though they only won one game. In other news.....Anna's soccer team, coached by her Daddy, has not lost a game and is playing for the Championship on Saturday, weather permitting. Go Fighters!!

October has been great, but not without some stress too. Little Wendy had a terrible fall on the playground....scared this Mama really bad! She fell from the top of a rock climbing wall, and pushed her two top teeth into her gums. We thought they were knocked out completely, but x-rays showed them pushed up in between her permanent teeth. So sad and painful for Wendy, but she is unbelievably tough. We are just waiting for her to heal and are not sure what will happen with her four top baby teeth. Wendy is trusting God to bring down her teeth. We are so thankful that God protected her from other serious injuries because she fell eight feet. Praise God for protection. The very same weekend of Wendy's accident, Jacob had his new bike stolen out of our garage. Obviously this was very concerning to think someone would come into our garage and steal something. The great news is that Jacob's bike was replaced by friends of ours that are in a community group called the Jaycee's...another blessing!

In baby news, Rose is nine months old! She loves food and is currently cutting teeth number six and seven! Her tooth filled grin is almost as cute as her gummy grin was! She is really getting around, by army crawl, our second to crawl this way! She definitely makes her presence known with lots of baby talk, squeals, and giggles. She is such a joy!

I cant' finish this "newsletter" without introducing the newest member of our family. Her name is Josie and she is a sweet heart with a face that is so ugly it's cute! She's a boxer and is full of playful energy and seems to need all of our attention, which we are happy to give!

Vacation

Wow! September is almost over and I have only posted twice. My girls want me to post about our vacation that we took on the sixth of this month. It was a good vacation. With gas prices, we decided to stay close and we only had to drive an hour and 45 minutes to get to Massenutten Mountain. We have been several times before. It is a great family friendly place. Here are some pictures from our trip.....
We enjoyed our first road trip in our "new to us" 12 passenger van. The kids are really enjoying the extra leg room!
We really enjoyed having my sister and her family with us the end of the week. Our time went fast, but we managed to squeeze in as much as possible! We had a little celebration for Elizabeth's 9th birthday.....
And Jackson was just happy to be there!

Wendy and Lily were very in to treasure hunting, and nearly filled a ziploc bag with pine cones, pine needles, rocks, moss, leaves, sticks, lots of acorns of various sizes and colors, some of which looked suspiciously like deer doo...(we are city folk you know).
Jacob tries to avoid and ruin every picture I attempt to get of him these days, but I manage to get a good on here and there:)
The deer were great entertainment and they were everywhere! Of course the babies were adorable. We learned that they like bread, but not cheetos....
Grandpappy groundhog was very grateful for the cheetos. I think if we would have allowed he would have came on in and sat at the table with us....a friendly chap indeed!
Lily was so wiped out by swimming, but tried her best not to nap in fear of missing something:) We had a great time, and I was glad to get home and back into school!